Posts Tagged With: Nero

When an event like the tragedy in Newtown, CT takes places, it is common that in the news the same event is replayed from lots of different perspectives. That is the best way to view this section of Revelation as well. Rather than understanding chapters 16-19 chronologically, we are seeing the same fall of Rome from several viewpoints.

Today, John sees Rome (code-named Babylon) pictured as a gaudy, drunken prostitute riding on a red, seven-headed, ten-horned beast. She is drunk on the “blood of God’s holy people” (17:6). Rome is pictured here as a power-drunk manipulator of the nations, offering base pleasure, riding on the beast of brute power. So pictured, we can all think of many such prostitutes throughout the ages. Interestingly, when we talk about two powers — political, cultural, or economic — joining forces in order to increase their market share, we say they are “in bed” with each other.

The description of the beast is quite detailed. In what is clearly an inferior parody of the Lamb, the Beast is described this way:

. . . when they see the monster that was and is not and is to come. (17:8)

The seven heads symbolize both seven hills (just like Rome was built on) and seven emperors of Rome, much as they did on the seven-headed beast in Romans 13. The most salient point regarding the heads/emperors of the beast is that there will soon come an eighth head/emperor who “is also one of the seven” (17:11). This strange statement is best understood as a reference to the soon-to-ascend destructive Domitian, who will be like Nero returning from the dead. The ten horns are foreign puppet-kings that join the prostitute in her persecution of the Lamb.

In a strange twist of events, as the chapter ends the ten horns and the beast turn against the prostitute, destroying her with fire and eating her flesh. These ten kings will eventually revolt and overtake Rome. The prostitute discovers what many have found throughout the ages: “every revolutionary power contains within itself the seed of destruction” (Mounce, Revelation, 320 quoting Lilje). In opening the door of alliance, Rome also opened the door to defeat. Power attracts, but them it corrupts and turns people against each other. Power is Rome’s downfall.

John adds one more point that would have been most important to the first recipients of this book:

God has put it into their hearts to do his will. (17:17)

With all this talk of Satan, it would be easy to think dualistically as if God and Satan are fighting each other with near equal power, heading towards an uncertain end. John remind us all that God is sovereign and all that is done comes by His hand. God is ultimately responsible for Rome’s fall.

At church each week I sit a row or two in front of a former POW from the Vietnamese War. Ken is an immensely interesting man, both distinguished and completely humble at the same time. I have heard him tell his stories several times of being detained in the Hanoi Hilton and every time the crowd — whether they were age 8 or 80 — was mesmerized. Especially intriguing was his account of writing letters home to his wife. However, these letters were filled with intelligence details written in seemingly innocuous code he had been taught in training for the war. The Viet Cong would read his mail and pass it along as nothing more than a letter to a wife about remembrances from life at home or purely imaginative scenarios. Hidden in there were details about how many detainees were there, their conditions, morale, and the sort.

Revelation 13 was the first chapter I ever read in Revelation. I was 14 and I had heard of this chapter about weird monsters and the number 666. Sounded like the kind of chapter a kid who listen to Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and who read Stephen King needed to read. So I did. And understood nothing that I read.

You may feel the same way today after reading this chapter. Weird. Puzzling.

I think it is best to think of this chapter like a letter to a detainee’s loved ones that might seem odd but innocuous to the outsider but had much meaning to those familiar with Jewish apocalyptic imagery and rhetorical devices. How do you talk about the enemy when they read your mail? Like this.

As chapter 12 ended we left the seven-headed red dragon Satan as he flooded the earth with waters of evil in an unsuccessful effort to drown the woman who gave birth to Jesus. Today, out of that sea (a universal symbol in the ancient world of evil) comes a horrific beast. With seven heads and the watery connection, we know this beast is a servant of Satan. In the last half of the chapter, another beast arises from the earth who serves and glorifies the first beast. On what is surely a take-off on the sealing of the righteous in chapter 7, this second beast marks on the right hand and forehead all of those in the area who wish to do business. Finally, John says that this beast is a symbol for a human and using apocalyptic numerology (gematria) one can determine who this is from his secret number 666.

Yeah, clear as day, right? Much ink has been spilled on this confusing chapter, and I don’t wish to add to it other than to give an interpretation that I think makes sense (the Internet is filled with scores of other interpretations). After pulling back the curtain of reality in chapter 12 to show us that Satan is really behind the suffering of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, John lets the curtain back into place so all we see again are the human agents of Satan’s work of deceit and destruction. There is a horrible beast of a power that will make the life of the Christians of Asia Minor difficult. That beast will come by sea. This is most likely the Roman government as a whole, with seven heads for the seven emperors there had been before this time, the mortally wounded one being the worst of all thus far, Nero. Then, as the second beast is especially religious (13:15) the beast from the land is likely the government officials and religious personnel from Asia Minor who were especially loyal to Rome and would have put the greatest direct pressure on the recipients of this letter. We know that greatest ostracizing and disenfranchising tool that natives would have had was the ability to turn people against a Christian’s business. If you want money bearing the “mark of the beast” (the picture of the Caesar) you will have to play by our rules and leave your superstitions behind. These Christians knew well the power of this beast. The symbolic number 666 has been interpreted many ways, but the best seems to be that this is a reference to Nero, based on a popular belief that Nero was so evil he was going to come back to life again (the Nero redivivus myth). In a sense, Domitian, who brought intense persecution to the Christians of Asia Minor shortly after Revelation was written (if a date in the 80s AD is correct), became that “second Nero.” Domitian picked up where Nero left off.

In an effort to universalize this maybe we could say that the beast from the sea is any force that uses sheer power to work against God’s kingdom. The beast from the land is the force that adds religion by coercion and intimidation into the mix. That happened in the first-century Roman Empire, the tenth-century Roman Catholic Church, the twelfth-century Islamic Middle East, the early-twentieth century Nazi Germany, the mid-twentieth century Iron Curtain Communists, the twenty-first century terrorist camps in Afghanistan, and now the center of Africa as tribe battles tribe and ethnic group kills off ethnic group. Brute Power and Religion used to support Brute Power has had many faces throughout history.

I believe these are the two verses that would have spoken loudest to the first faithful Christians reading this chapter:

So everyone on earth worshiped it — everyone, that is, whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the lamb who was slaughtered. (13:8)

When one sees the immense power of these beasts, it is hard to imagine that anyone could resist doing what they want. And in the ancient Roman society, most did follow the norm. But these Christians can take heart that they have an allegiance to one who is even more powerful. They can be those who will not bow a knee.

But, the Christians of Asia Minor are mentioned in this passage in another place, too:

It [the beast of the earth] was granted the right to make war against God’s holy people and to defeat them. (13:7)

That too is this group of faithful Christians.

And now we are back to what has become one of the paradoxical main themes of this book: There is a great rescue coming. Hold on. You will be taken safely through it if you do not give up the faith. But that rescue is not physical. You will have to lay this life down and go through the second death in order to live forever with the Lamb.

Turning points. We love them. Or hate them, depending on which way things turn. When things start turning in a favorable way, they are the dawning light of a new day. They possess hope enough to fight on.

D-Day was one such turning point. Thursday, June 6, 1944. Tides turned for the Allied Forces on that day. That Hitler and the Axis Powers had gone from the hunters to the hunted was becoming clear. However, there was still fighting to be done. V-E Day would not be for another eleven months, Wednesday, May 8, 1945.

In many ways I read this chapter, seemingly the contents of the bittersweet “little scroll” of chapter 10, as a similar turning point.

John receives a vision of two witnesses guarded safely through a period of persecution (42 months = 1260 days = 3.5 years = time, times, half a time → were all symbolic ways to depict an indefinite period of trial, based on Daniel 8). However, when that time period is over and their message has been faithfully delivered, protection is lifted and the people of the “great city” of “Sodom” or “Egypt” kill them and leave them for public disgrace. After 3.5 days, the two are resurrected and whisked away to the heavens. At this point the angelic chorus of God’s throne-room breaks into unmatched praise and announcement of a decisive turning point. Now is the time “to destroy the destroyers of the earth” (11:18).

Who exactly are the “two witnesses”? There are many, many interpretations. This may be one of the most contested passages in the book. Almost all see that the two witnesses are described as Elijah (fire devouring enemies, shut up the sky from raining, v.5-6) and Moses (water turned to blood, calling down plagues, v.6), but who or what is being referred to by these figures? If this vision is talking about actual people, I am most drawn to the suggestion that this would be Peter and Paul, both of whom died during the reign of Nero in public ways in Rome (always the “great city” in Revelation, and understandably like the immoral Sodom and tyrannical Egypt, v.8).

Now, fifteen years later, the Jesus movement did not in fact die as one might have expected it to after the persecutions of Nero. Almost as if it were “back from the dead,” as strong as ever before, the tables have turned. There are dark days ahead for the seven churches addressed in this book as Domitian brings a second wave of persecution in Asia Minor, but God will see them safely through this as he did before, at least safely through the second death of martyrdom to the great reward of new life. Rome dealt its death-blow to those brought to Christ by the apostle to the Jews (Peter) and the apostle to the Gentiles (Paul), but death could not keep her down. The fate of the kingdoms of the world is sealed at this point. Victory is in sight. Rome is going down. Rome is now the hunted. Justice is coming. In many ways, what we will see as we keep on reading will be the undoing of the forces of evil opposed to God.

Verse 15 may be one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible:

The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and loud voices were heard from heaven. “Now the kingdom of the world has passed to our Lord and his Messiah,” said the voices, “and he will reign forever and ever.”

There is nothing that God is after more than the redemption of His creation — people and place. This is the New Creation, when this world is rescued from the forces of evil and it becomes the domain of God once again. Here in the middle of the book we are given a glimmer of the glory to come.

Recently, a friend and mentor said he and his co-teacher had taught every book in the New Testament in their Sunday School class . . . except Revelation. It is just too hard a book to teach responsibly. True! I am afraid this sentiment is true for many Christians too. They avoid Revelation out of fear, confusion, or intimidation. Some so neglect the book they don’t even realize the book is called Revelation (singular), not Revelations (plural).

But many of us also know people who hang out in Revelation to the exclusion of much of the rest of the New Testament. Every news headline is a fulfillment of some obscure detail in Revelation. This two-thousand year old book was certainly talking about the European Union or Barack Obama or Pope Benedict. Making sure people know and agree with these interpretations of prophecy is equally as important as how one treats his neighbor or whether care is given to the destitute.

Whether one avoids the book or camps out in its pages, Revelation is an absolutely incredible piece of literature and fitting end to the Bible. Personally, once I took a seminary class on the book my confusion over the book was far less. Now, Revelation is easily in my top five favorite books of the Bible. More and more I see how the teachings of this book have become integral to my own theology. There is no way these short posts will help us all overcome our under- or overemphasis on Revelation, but may the last month of this blog help us all gain a new appreciation for this majestic book.

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Revelation was written by a man named John. But which John? The apostle and writer of the Gospel and Epistles? Probably not. There is too many stylistic and theological differences to suggest these were all written by the same author. Many scholars are content to simple say this is a different John, maybe “John the Revelator,” writing from exile on the island of Patmos just off the coast of Asia Minor near Ephesus.

When was Revelation written is also somewhat contested and a question that many scholars believe can be answered very precisely because of cryptic references in the book. What most agree on is that the book was written during a period when Christians were being persecuted and therefore had to speak in code. This would fit the time period of Nero in the 60s AD when Peter and Paul are traditionally thought to have been killed, but an even better case can be made that this fits the 80s when the Roman Emperor Domitian brought about an even bloodier oppression of Christianity. I tend toward a later date.

What kind of book is this? Prophecy? Yes, there is certainly prophecy in the book. A letter? We know from the first three chapters that this book was addressed to the seven churches in Asia Minor (where the persecution of Christians in the 80s AD was worst). Revelation is sermonic and poetic in places, and maybe the best term for the book is apocalyptic, in that it is giving a message veiled in exaggerated, fantastical imagery because of perceived opposition to free speech. Bottomline: Revelation is good literature.

When is Revelation talking about? This is somewhat simplified, but there are three main options:

Then — John was addressing people in the first-century undergoing first-century problems, mainly political and cultural persecution. The main evil in the book is Rome. The grotesque beasts are emperors and political/economic institutions. Maybe the last three chapters are talking about the end of time, but the rest of the book has to stay anchored in an ancient Roman context.

Future — John was foreseeing cataclysmic events that would take place at the end of time as Jesus returns and the New Creation comes. Of course, the beginning of the end could be right now, which is what many people have thought all throughout time since the first-century. So look for the “signs of the times” all around you.

Always — John was speaking in symbols and by nature symbolism is much more timeless and malleable to situation. We press the images too far when we come up with singular, specific, time-bound fulfillments. John is speaking of evil in its many faces and forms, all throughout time. Thus, John is talking about Rome but also our world today and the Middle Ages and the age to come.

Personally, I prefer the last option, with a heavy emphasis on “then.”

This month we may not break the code on whether Sandy and Katrina, economic cliffs, and re-elections are harbingers on the end-times. But if we keep our eyes wide open to the big picture I believe we will be encouraged by John’s main point: Do not be discouraged by the darkness you see all around you, God wins in the end! Better days are coming! Praise the Lamb who has made the victory sure!